Advertising's classic love stories: KS Chakravarthy and Priti Nair

The famous wedding card Sunday morning at 11:30, I enter Priti Nair’s house. The co-founder of Curry-Nation greets me with a warm welcome and asks ‘Chakra’ to come out. I assume she’s calling Chax aka KS Chakravarthy, CCO of Liqvd Asia. Chax and Priti have been married for over two years now. This is their second marital stint, with each other. Yes, they first got married in the late 90s. After seven years, they decided to part ways. Seven years of severance later, they decided to get back together. “I often say our relationship went through the seven year itch, in reverse,” quips Chax.

Priti first met Chax in 1992 when he’d joined Chaitra Leo Burnett (LB) from (Lowe) Lintas. “He came along with a bunch of other Lintas guys. We used to call them the Lintas mafia. There was this perception that these guys project themselves as the superior ones and are here to teach us advertising. So, obviously we hated them,” Priti reminisces. Things changed when she was shifted to his group though. “It’s only under him that I started learning what advertising really was and how it’s done,” she says.

The secret affairFor years nobody in the agency had a clue that the two were seeing each other. When the two decided to get married, they also decided not to work in the same agency after the wedding. “It’s because she used to always get the raw end of the deal,” explains Chax. “I would get screwed for no reason sometimes just because he wanted to be extra fair and unbiased towards me,” adds Priti. So, when Chax announced her departure from the agency, he also announced their wedding. Obviously, everyone was shocked. “I think some of my team members were also scared that I would’ve told him what they spoke about him behind his back since he was the NCD,” she says. Overall, people were really happy.

“When we were debating who should leave after the wedding, I suggested she should leave and told her if I left, everyone will hate you here,” Chax tells me jokingly. Priti joined Lintas after that. “I remember I reached out to Balki for LB Bangalore when he told me about his Lintas offer. I told him to take that up and added that I’m sending him a damn good person,” he recalls.

The wedding card

The who’s who of Chaitra Leo Burnett had taken up the task of creating their wedding card. From the copy to the art to the photography, everything was brainstormed. Suresh Natarajan did the photography. The final picture looked like Priti Nair sporting Chax’s beard. The family and relatives were given a vanilla card. This was only for the few close friends and family members who could appreciate the crazy. “I remember my mother telling me, “What have you done to her face,” and then secretly calling me to ask for more copies of this card to keep,” says Chax. The couple recently got a copy of this card framed to keep in the house.

The compatibility test

Chax is a very cerebral person, he says. Logic comes naturally to him. Priti is the one who brings magic into his life. “I get bored with an idea as soon as I crack it. She will always push me to continue working on the one that has potential when she sees that I may be losing interest,” he says. They’ve worked very closely during the LB days. “We started doing our scratch films together as well when I took to direction. I shot the Balbir Pasha films for her, in fact,” he adds. Since Priti had caught pneumonia right after the shoot, Chax overtook the edits as well. The two have the whackiest stories to tell. They once got a Diwali greeting card from their wine shop. “Darling, we’ve got a certificate saying we’re alcoholics,” is what Chax had told Priti on receiving the card. Priti calls him ‘Chakra’. The only other person who does that is Pops (KV Sridhar, their senior/ex colleague from LB). “Only when she’s angry with me she calls me Chax,” he says. Chax calls her ‘babe’. “When we were separate, I’d inadvertently end up calling her ‘babe’ and then immediately rectify myself and address her as ‘Priti’. It felt so odd. Babe has become a proper noun for me now.”

The second stint, the stronger friendship

When they first got married, the two realised that expectations come into picture when you’re not just friends anymore. “Things were not working out after a point so we decided to part ways,” Priti says. I didn’t feel it was necessary to dwell on what went wrong because they were soon going to tell me how they made it right again. They remained friends even after the separation. Chax continued to visit Priti’s family during festivals and special occasions. “My family loved him. They always wanted us to get back together,” she shares. He somehow always knew they will come around. So did most of their friends from LB and other agencies. “Only she was in denial,” he says.

So, what has changed the second time now? “We are better friends,” says Priti. The fights are the same, and so are the triggers. “He was forgetful then, he’s the same even now,” she adds. “I’m just a lot less organised than she is,” says Chax in his defence, trying very hard not to chuckle. “I still get upset. But we don’t stop talking. That’s the difference. I think all relationships should have a break. It just gives you a lot of perspective and builds stronger understanding once you get back together,” she adds.Guess sometimes life just happens to you in such a way that you have a great story to share later on. This is one of those.